The US National Institutes of Health is continuing to fund new laboratory experiments on cats despite saying that they are “working tirelessly” to “phase out” such projects.
In July this year, Dr Nicole Kleinstreuer, the NIH acting deputy director, announced in a podcast with Dr Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH director, that she did not think the NIH should do research on dogs or cats. On the Director’s Desk: The Future of Animal Models in Research, Dr Kleinstreuer said: “I think it’s unconscionable” and “to phase them out, we are working tirelessly behind the scenes”. However, she added the NIH was constrained under the law to leave existing grants in place.
However, documents uncovered by White Coat Waste (WCW), a watchdog campaigning to end taxpayer-funded animal experiments, reveal that since the July podcast, the NIH has awarded more than $1.7m in new and extended grants for experiments using cats.
New grants include $486,000 to study blood flow in the brain after stroke. In the study 60 kittens will have portions of their skulls removed, have viruses injected into their brains, are paralysed and have strokes induced. They undergo brain imaging before being killed.
Another, investigating gene therapy for human glaucoma, received a grant of $439,000. Three-month-old “mutant” kittens bred with glaucoma, are injected in the eye with viruses, restrained for examination and killed. Their eyes are then removed for dissection.
WCW says the allocation of new funds contradicts the NIH’s claim that it opposes the use of cats in experiments, and also argue that the NIH’s assertion that it is “legally constrained” from ending projects is false, noting NIH policy which states there is “no legal obligation to provide funding beyond the ending date of the current budget period”.
Despite this, the NIH has extended seven cat studies since July with grants totalling almost $572,000. Total lifetime funding for these experiments is $38m.
Extended studies include one measuring limb coordination after injury. Thirty cats have their spinal cord cut and are forced to walk on treadmills to measure coordination mechanisms.
Another early-stage “proof-of-concept” study for gene therapy uses kittens bred with a neurological disorder. The kittens have an experimental treatment injected into their spinal fluid and when the disease becomes so severe that they cannot lie down properly, are killed.
Whitecoat Waste are calling on the NIH to cancel all existing grants for cat testing and to prohibit new ones.
The WCW senior vice-president, Justin Goodman, said Donald Trump should intervene and that the NIH had been misleading the public. “While other federal agencies under Trump are cancelling funding for painful cat and dog experiments, our investigations have exposed how the NIH has been doubling down,” he said.
An NIH spokesperson told the Guardian: “Dr Kleinstreuer’s remarks in the July conversation expressed her personal perspective on the ethical use of animals in research. NIH is conducting a comprehensive review of the dog and cat research portfolio to identify areas where we can responsibly transition away from these models, and recent policy updates encourage greater use of non-animal alternatives.”
The NIH is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research, spending an estimated $20bn annually on animal research. Millions of animals are used in US laboratories each year, including about 12,000 cats, 43,000 dogs, 105,000 monkeys, 64,000 birds and an estimated 111m rodents.
Earlier this year, the NIH announced it would prioritize human-based research, and reduce reliance on animal models, noting that methods like organ-on-a-chip, computer models and human data can give more human-relevant results. They have also ended “animal-only” funding.
An NIH spokesperson said: “NIH has strengthened expectations to prioritize non-animal alternatives where scientifically appropriate and implemented new guidance encouraging the use of innovative methods that may better predict human health.”
This shift is part of a growing federal effort to reduce animal use in US laboratories.
The 2022 FDA Modernization Act 2.0 removed the requirement for animal testing before human trials, and this April, the Food and Drug Administration announced a phase-out of animal testing for certain drugs, starting with monoclonal antibody therapies.
The National Association for Biomedical Research has argued that animal studies remain essential and that “there is currently no full replacement for animal models in biomedical research and drug development”, however, legislative and agency actions have accelerated the trend.
In March 2024, Congress directed veteran affairs to end research on dogs, cats, and primates by 2026, and by August, cat testing had ceased.
In May this year, following White Coat Waste revelations about US navy experiments which involved “crippling and electro-shocking” cats in constipation, incontinence and erectile dysfunction experiments, the navy halted all cat and dog research. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructed scientists to phase out monkey studies.
In July 2025, Dina Titus, a Democratic congresswoman who campaigns to end dog and cat testing, co-sponsored the PAAW Act. If passed, it would prohibit NIH-funded research that causes “significant pain or distress” to dogs or cats.
Titus said: “As a cat owner, I’m disturbed that Trump’s NIH is still funding cruel experimentation on cats when so many better alternatives exist. The Department of Veterans Affairs has completely ended cat testing, proving it can be done. Cats and dogs are family, and the NIH should not be using taxpayer dollars to harm them in unnecessary research.”
